The present invention relates to a device for orienting sheets or groups of sheets, in particular banknotes.
The present invention is employable to advantage in machines by which banknotes are ordered and wrapped in bundles, the field to which direct reference is made in the following specification albeit without implying any limitation in general scope.
The prior art embraces machines designed to control the quality and integrity of banknotes, consisting typically of a plurality of stacking modules each equipped with a respective formation channel. The stacking modules are filled at their infeed ends with a succession of single notes, which may be of any given type, whereupon these are examined, for example by optical means, and any defective items eliminated; thereafter, the notes are divided up according to denomination and/or type and directed toward respective independent outlets afforded by the selfsame stacking modules of the machine.
In this way, groups or stacks of single banknotes are formed at each of the outlets.
Once a predetermined number of banknotes per group has accumulated, the group or stack is picked up and transferred to a bundling machine by which it is bound with at least one wrapping band.
Alternatively, the machines in question can be supplied at the infeed end of each stacking module with a succession of bundle, i.e. sheets already checked and bound with respective wrapping bands, in such a way that the banknotes collecting at the outlets of the single formation channels consist not of stacks of discrete notes, but of stacks of bundled notes that are then picked up and transferred to other operating stations of the machine.
The operation of stacking banknotes to prepare them for subsequent bundling is adversely affected by the difficulty of ensuring a certain regularity in height of the stacks.
In effect, it will often be the case that lateral portions of the single banknotes present impressed stamps or watermarks tending to modify the surface of the paper money, inasmuch as these same lateral portions, originally smooth, assume a thickness greater than that of the note overall. Thus, if all or at least the majority of the banknotes happen to be oriented in the same manner, the height of the accumulating stacks will not be constant, that is to say the stack becomes higher on one side than on the other, and thus unstable to the point that it is impossible for the notes to be stacked neatly.
The same problem is experienced when banknotes are stacked already in bundles, because of the wrapping band placed around each bundle.
The object of the invention is to set forth a device, suitable for use in a machine for stacking banknotes singly or in bundles, that will allow orienting of the single notes or bundles during the formation of the respective stacks in such a way as to obtain stacks of substantially constant height.